Jorge Soler, Kansas City Royals
It’s easy for individual player performances to get buried when said player is on a squad that boasts the third-worst winning percentage in the American League. That’s not happening here, though — Jorge Soler is on a rampage at the plate.
Heading into this season, Soler had slugged 38 career homers in 1,132 plate appearances. He’s nearly doubled that (31) in just 477 plate appearances entering Wednesday’s game. Eight of those dingers have come in the second half, along with an absurd 183 wRC+. It hasn’t even been accompanied by a super-inflated BABIP (.278 in first half, .309 in second half), so he’s certainly earning every bit of this top-tier production.
Soler has typically always raked against four-seam fastballs…except for in 2017, when he struggled to an 80 wRC+ against that offering in limited playing time. He’s followed that with a wRC+ greater than 200 in 2018 and the same so far in 2019. The slugger has also improved greatly against cutters — he posted a single-digit wRC+ in 2017 (3) and 2018 (1), but is up at 95 against it so far this season.
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